I thought it was pretty good. I thought it was going a different direction though - the whole idea was deeply exploitative of grief for cash and 'psychics' were namechecked early on so I really thought it would go that way. I expected every flaw she noticed to prompt a hard sell for an upgrade and end with her friendless, homeless and planning a robbery to pay for the next level of Ash.

I guess I took it more literally about how people deal with grief. Before it all happened, when she was asking about his photo. Ash told her that it wasn't real, that it was a snapshot of fake happiness. And said that his mother just moved all the other photos of his dead family up into the attic so she didn't have the reminder and could move on.

With his fragmented personality, a snapshot of fake happiness, essentially he was no more real than a photo. He was only 'alive' while she was looking at him and talking to him. In between, he might as well have been sitting on the mantelpiece. In the end, he ended up in the attic as well. With all the old photos. And sure, while someone might pop up into the attic and take a look at the old photo's from time to time, taken by a moment of nostalgia or sadness, by and large they're mostly forgotten about.

Which is why I think the photo featured so heavily, for the viewer to draw parallels. I never once saw a invasion of the body snatchers meets iRobot, but then I pretty much tune out watching TV. Disbelief suspended

While I was watching it, I kept thinking of these text logs I have of a chap I used to talk to online in a MUSH. It wasn't romantic, he was just a friend who was hellofa fun to chat with. The last log is us arranging our next meet up, the day, the time. Never saw him again, neither did anyone else. All efforts to contact him turned up blank and his online presence died out as payments expired. I knew he was old and had liver trouble of a serious sort and I think he died.

Reading those logs in the years since, while I'm reading them, it's like he's there again. It's surreal how alive they make him seem. I don't read them anymore.

ZuluHero wrote:
I guess I took it more literally about how people deal with grief. Before it all happened, when she was asking about his photo. Ash told her that it wasn't real, that it was a snapshot of fake happiness. And said that his mother just moved all the other photos of his dead family up into the attic so she didn't have the reminder and could move on.

With his fragmented personality, a snapshot of fake happiness, essentially he was no more real than a photo. He was only 'alive' while she was looking at him and talking to him. In between, he might as well have been sitting on the mantelpiece. In the end, he ended up in the attic as well. With all the old photos. And sure, while someone might pop up into the attic and take a look at the old photo's from time to time, taken by a moment of nostalgia or sadness, by and large they're mostly forgotten about.

Which is why I think the photo featured so heavily, for the viewer to draw parallels. I never once saw a invasion of the body snatchers meets iRobot, but then I pretty much tune out watching TV. Disbelief suspended

That's a really good way of looking at it and actually makes perfect sense. I was quite tired when I watched it last night and couldn't quite work out the message, although I still enjoyed it.

I sort of understand. A real life friend died at the end of 2011, I still have his number and texts on my phone he is still on my MSN contact list. I can't bring myself to delete them. It's weird how alive it makes the person. Black Mirror took that to the next level.

ZuluHero wrote:
I guess I took it more literally about how people deal with grief. Before it all happened, when she was asking about his photo. Ash told her that it wasn't real, that it was a snapshot of fake happiness. And said that his mother just moved all the other photos of his dead family up into the attic so she didn't have the reminder and could move on.

With his fragmented personality, a snapshot of fake happiness, essentially he was no more real than a photo. He was only 'alive' while she was looking at him and talking to him. In between, he might as well have been sitting on the mantelpiece. In the end, he ended up in the attic as well. With all the old photos. And sure, while someone might pop up into the attic and take a look at the old photo's from time to time, taken by a moment of nostalgia or sadness, by and large they're mostly forgotten about.

Which is why I think the photo featured so heavily, for the viewer to draw parallels. I never once saw a invasion of the body snatchers meets iRobot, but then I pretty much tune out watching TV. Disbelief suspended

The trailers (that I saw) made it look far more haunting. A twist along the lines of "there's no one upstairs" when the sister comes for tea would have been nice and creepy to develop on. Rather than playing dress up with a talking real doll from facebook.

I had a RL friend die late 2011 as well. I've did a kind of purge a few months back and I'm still chucking things as I find them. I may regret it at some point, but... after Seraph, I don't think so. It's like picking at a scab. I'd imagine its different for everyone though - what's right for one person would be wrong for another and you have to work out what's what for yourself.

I may not be remembering it correctly but I think quite a lot of time had gone past before she got to that point. She'd already become pretty dependant on the phone version so I'm not sure going 'full robo' was that much of a leap at that point.

I'm not really convinced by the idea that you could have a robot that realistic and fully functional but I just shrugged an went with it.